Never before have citizens groups across the country with no funding been able to slay the corporate funded, highly paid lobbyist-driven dragons. American Traffic Solutions(ATS) of Scottsdale, AZ headed by Jim Tuton spent more than $1.5 Million to try every trick in the book in the 5 cities that were voting on bans of his automated ticketing machines. He paid lawyers, lobbyists, front groups and shelled out big money to run ads in major news publications. The result? Jim and ATS lost in every city.

All 5 of the citizens groups, located in California, Washington, Ohio and Texas spent a total of $2,000 funding their grass roots efforts. What an amazing accomplishment this is for concerned citizens who registered free websites, wrote articles, utilized social media, studied data, scored media attention, gathered the necessary signatures and finally, stood at the polls all day on Tuesday earning votes.

These types of victories are unheard of and should be recognized as proof positive that citizens groups with virtually no money can actually prevail with hard work, and of course, being on the right side of a hot button issue.

Here is a list of the cities who will no longer suffer the constant surveillance and money drain of automated ticketing machines.

Notably, in Mukilteo and Anaheim, the citizens initiatives are winning by more than 70-30 ratios. Congrats goes out to all, but especially those two groups for their resounding victories.

Despite the widespread use of ATS cameras, Tuton and his team of lawyers and lobbyists do not have an unending supply of money. How many more of these defeats will they be able to endure? It must be mentioned that photo ticketing has never survived a public vote and Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 was no different. It was definitely one for the record books and scored 5 victories out of 5 for the good guys.

[Opinion] The most anti photo radar candidate in Arizona period is looking for volunteers to work at polling places tomorrow.

If you would like to help David Fitzgerald with his campaign for Arizona State House of Representatives in Legislative District 6, this would be a great chance to get in on the ground floor with a principled candidate. David is committed to ending photo ticketing in all forms in Arizona.

If interested, please call 623-340-1811 for info. The most critical times for volunteers are 6-9 am and 4-7 pm. Volunteers will be asked to reinforce David’s message at a legal distance away from the voting booths. All the details are available at the previously mentioned phone number or by emailing his campaign.

Headquarters for this effort will be set up in the Denny’s at the intersection of I-17 and Bell Road in North Phoenix.

The 4th largest city in the country is going to vote on a photo ticketing ban. This can’t sit well with scam vendors Redflex and ATS. That list of cities is growing rapidly, but Houston, TX sticks out because it would be a dagger to the heart of the aforementioned fraud peddlers.

TheNewspaper.com covers the saga in at length in their latest article:

Also in the Lone Star State, Baytown and Port Lavaca are ready to vote on scameras. Stop Baytown Red Light Cameras turned in the needed signatures to compensate for some that were invalidated by the city. Quoted from their website,

“The Arizona camera company(ATS) gets paid a bounty of 55% of each ticket collected in return for installing the cameras for free. source; Baytown Sun 3-27-10″

If it “isn’t about the money,” ATS sure has a funny way of showing it based on that last stat.

Outside of Texas, Mukilteo, Washington has won their court battle with a front group funded by scamera companies and that Seattle suburb will be voting on a photo ticketing ban.

The great state of Ohio is next on the radar screen with the cities of Garfield Heights and South Euclid, OH having their signature count validated recently. Both city councils are going to review them.

CameraFRAUD volunteers will be taking on Paradise Valley, where the scam started almost 25 years ago. Watching these other cities jump on the scamera-ban bandwagon should be plenty of motivation to up our own efforts.

The governor’s spokesman, Paul Senseman, said Brewer wants voters to decide the future of photo radar.

“Gov. Brewer proposed back in January, in her budget document, that this matter be put before Arizona voters to have the ultimate decision as to whether or not they’d like to continue a state photo radar system or not,” Senseman said. He said the Legislature discussed the issue, but did not put it on the ballot.

The debate over photo radar is not over, said Senseman.

“Not only will this discussion be continuing in the Arizona Legislature, it’s a discussion that policy makers around the United States, even the world, are going to continue to have.”

Brewer made the decision not to renew the contract with Redflex to run the DPS system that “goes dark” at midnight July 15th. However, there is nothing to stop a similar program from returning to Arizona highways.

From the comments given by Senseman, Brewer still wants a public vote on the matter after the citizen’s initiative did not automatically put it on the ballot. There was nothing to indicate whether Brewer would favor a vote on city-run programs as well.

Arizona continues to fall behind other states with better leadership. It’s alarming to watch our politicians stand by while states who have much fewer cameras wise up and ban them.

In South Carolina, the governor signed a bill in to law that bans photo ticketing. TheNewspaper.com featured a story about it on Friday, June 19th:

“South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford last week signed a law banning the use of red light cameras and speed cameras in the state. The measure swept unanimously through the House, 106 to 0, on June 3 and in the Senate 38 to 0 on June 2. – – South Carolina’s law takes effect immediately.”

Not to be outdone by the other state with the word “South” in its name, South Dakota was the next to step up and ban the scameras. This time it was judicial action that did it, which could mean more financial losses for Redflex. Again, TheNewspaper.com with the report:

“A red light camera company faces being fined for running an illegal operation in the state of South Dakota. Last Tuesday, a circuit court judge ruled that Redflex Traffic Systems and the city of Sioux Falls violated state law and the US Constitution when they set up automated ticketing machines without approval from the state legislature. The question of whether Redflex is financially liable, and to what degree, will now be determined by a jury.”

Why is it so difficult for anyone with a position of power in the state of Arizona to step forward, admit this system is a complete scam and save the citizens from one more day of dealing with it? Sure, we’ve had folks in law enforcement step up and do the right thing, but they only have so much power.

Arizona truly is at a major deficit in leadership. When you go to the polls in November, first to vote for our citizens initiative to ban scameras, but also to select our next group of leaders, please choose wisely.

Anyone who didn’t do their part to ban photo radar in the state of Arizona, and mind you, there are very few who did, does not deserve to “serve the public” for another term.

Just remember, signatures are due by July 1st. There will be a couple more meetings to bring your sheets in, including one on or around June 30th.

If you can’t make it to either and have sheets, please PLEASE let someone know and we’ll make arrangements to come pick them up from you.

Remember, you don’t need an official time or date to collect signatures either. Just ask friends, family and coworkers to sign. Or spend an hour or two at a Gas Station, Grocery Store or wherever you can find people gathering in mass.